Community

This weekend saw the launch of Staffordshire’s first ever Eco Centre, based in Uttoxeter. The Eco Centre is on site at The Strawberry Garden Centre, Bramshall Road, facilities include a Community Drop-In Lounge, an Eco Training Room and a Plastics Recycling Workshop, surrounded by a small community and sensory garden area. The opening celebrations kicked off on Friday evening with a drinks reception to thank the hard work and support of Globe’s volunteers, funders and supporters, this was furthered by a donation from Waitrose’ Community Matters team with a cheque for £454 to aid with purchasing education and recycling equipment.

The Eco Centre then opened its doors to the public on the 3rd November, hosting a plastic free pop up shop run by Roots Larder. The Eco Centre is proud to now be a collection point for Roots, residents can shop for eco-friendly products online via the Roots website and collect it from the centre, making plastic free shopping much more accessible.

Saturday also saw the launch of the Eco Centre’s first on-site course, ‘Edible gardening for small spaces’. The course was fully booked and participants tried their hand at creative ideas for sustainable gardening. Liz Essex, a who attended the course said, “I had a lovely day and it’s certainly got my mind buzzing with what I want to achieve outside in my not-so-big-space.”

Kate Copeland, Director of The Globe Foundation commented,

“We are so pleased to be able to bring such a much-needed eco facility to the town of Uttoxeter. We have been overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm of our community. Recently the threats to our environment have been very prominent throughout the media, people are now much more aware and keen to live sustainably but just aren’t sure where to start. We hope to change that by providing education, awareness and resources – small changes lead to a big difference. We have already had a huge response to our courses, our next two are fully booked, although we will be releasing our 2019 courses later this month.”

Kate added,

“we are also excited to announce corporate sponsorship from recycled packaging company, Cambrian Packaging, who attended the event on Friday evening.

Cambrian are dedicated to improving the responsible use of plastics and will be working with us on our Plastic Recycling Workshop as well as providing funding for our plastic shredder.”